And former world No. 1 Venus Williams rebounded from a shaky second set to defeat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in the first round if the hard court event.

The afternoon matches saw scoreboards go dark due to a long power outage that affected 200,000 Hydro Quebec customers in the area, but the matches went on uninterrupted.

Generators provided lighting as local favourite Eugenie Bouchard took the court for her second round night match with Shelby Rogers.

Petkovic, the 16th seed, was unable to play because she was sick.

“I pushed it back until the end and really tried to get healthy,” she said in a statement. “But I had a temperature and a fever and it’s too risky to play like that in these kinds of conditions.

“I’m very disappointed.”

She plans to rest in bed for two or three days and try to be ready for a tournament next week in Cincinnati.

Williams, who has played the Rogers Cup in Toronto before but never in Montreal, was on court in the early afternoon when the power went off.

“It was like going back to the southern California juniors,” she said. “But I tried to think of it as positive, like ’this will be just like practice, so go ahead and relax. It will be a practice match.’ You try to play those mind games when you’re out there.”

It was an even first round match, with Pavlyuchenkova ranked 24th and Williams 26th.

“We’re both very good players and she’s a dangerous player for the top players as well because she can do everything well when she’s on,” said Williams. “It felt good to win the match and hopefully gain some momentum for the rest of the week.”

Williams is on the same side of the draw as her sister, top-seeded Serena Williams, who begins play Wednesday. They could not meet before the semifinals.